Earlier this week, footage from the once highly anticipated Half-Life 2 mod, Black Mesa: Source, leaked online before being quickly vacuumed back up by copyright claims. The perpetually-in-development mod — long thought to be vaporware — ambitiously intends to recreate the original Half-Life using the Source engine. Its recent, seemingly unintended re-emergence may serve, at least, to re-ignite hope of its completion amongst the Valve community.

There has been no official comment on the leaked footage by the mod’s creators, but the original trailer, released a couple of years ago, still holds up, tantalizing Half-Life fans with an exponentially prettier return to the Black Mesa research facilities, and any other dimensions therein.

In other gaming news this week, robots with pipes and tweed jackets hunt you down, Thief 4 may be pushed to release on next-gen consoles, Rise of the Triad returns, a new Prince of Persia could be in the works, Mass Effect 3 receives seven new (sort-of) weapons, and more.

• A few months ago, we previewed the hunting, Tweedpunk robots of Sir, You Are Being Hunted. This week, aptly-named developer Big Robot brings you the game’s first trailer.

• Following up on our theme of developers trashing Windows 8 last week, id Software’s John Carmack chimes in, claiming from QuakeCon that he is unimpressed and that the new OS presents nothing exciting.
• Old-school gamers and fans of 3D Realms will appreciate this: a Rise of the Triad remake was announced at QuakeCon last week. Shack News brings you all the preview-y goodness.

• Against half of our collective better judgment (we’ll let you guess whose), we giddily/painfully inform you that The Sims 3 Seasons expansion pack is coming soon, featuring new ways to kill off your Sims. Jack-O-Lanterns in a room with no doors, maybe?
• Uncharted 3 receives Naughty Dog’s biggest patch ever, highlighted by a new multiplayer Tournament system.
• Is a Prince of Persia reboot on the way? Kotaku seems to think so, presenting compelling evidence in the form of a new screenshot and piecing together some other online clues.

• A Neo Geo fan who spent $30,000 on a rare, unreleased copy of Aero Fighters 3 may be suffering from buyer’s remorse.
• The long rumoured, never seen Thief 4 has reportedly been delayed so it can be released on next-gen consoles. Series fans will have to wait a little longer for the return of Garrett...
• Finally, Bioware has unlocked seven new weapons for single player Mass Effect 3 in the new Firefight DLC. These weapons were previously available only in multiplayer matches.

If there are games you’d like us to cover or blogs you think we should be following for more news, please let us know @tdelucci or @pritpaulbains.